Solo29! Blimey it's been a while, but I'm so glad to be back. Your work, as always, is beautiful and progressing amazingly. The blue line cards (I feel reluctant to call them 'sketch' cards) are brilliant and I can't wait to see how 'Night on Bespin' turns out.

Thanks so much for the kind comments, everyone! Again, it's truly appreciated!

I would like to apologize in the gap in posting, but it's been one hectic month. I finally got around to finishing the series of pieces I've been working on and I'll start tonight with the completed version of "A Night on Bespin."

This is my first all digital piece done in Photoshop. I only did the initial sketch in graphite(which I then scanned into the computer). Everything else was done entirely in the computer. It took a heck of a long time(I can't narrow it down to hours, so I'll just say weeks) and it did get tedious in spots, but I think the final is more than worth it:

Ohhhhh...I just dropped by with a few spare minutes tonight, and saw you had an update--OMG!! What a fantastic painting: the cityscape behind them is luscious, with such pretty light and detailing; but it's not so much that it detracts from the foreground characters, which are soooooo beautiful! I always imagined them having some moments like this on Bespin...before all-holy-Sith broke loose, that is...and this is such a perfect illustration of such a moment! Just yummy contrasts, light and depth--LOVE IT!

earlybird-obi-wan: Thank you! I always found it interesting to see WIP images as well, that's why I figured I'd ask. I will have all the ones I've collected throughout the process posted at the end of this post. Enjoy!

TheOnlyJediPrincess: Thanks for dropping by! Ugh, tedious doesn't even begin to describe some parts. I've spent 3 days on Han's jacket alone. It was rough.

FalconFan: Glad to see you back again, Deb! You are sorely missed around these parts!

The buildings were quite difficult to pull off! That was the first time I've ever drawn anything freely using just my tablet and Photoshop. I was a little unsure in spots, but overall, I'm glad to hear that I was able to pull off the look I was going for! Thanks again for the kind comments! They're truly appreciated! And you must drop by more often!

soits: Thank you!

dancing_star: Aww, thank you! Must appreciated!

shemightbedani: Thanks! I was hoping to go for more of a night scene. I hope I was able to pull that off!

Since there seems to be some interest in the process of my last piece, I've decided to post some WIP images from "A Night on Bespin" that I've collected over the past couple of weeks. If you have any questions about what you see, feel free to ask!

[link=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/HSolo29/Fan%20Art/hl-buildings.jpg]WIP#1[/link] - outline of buildings in place and rendering of them begins

[link=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/HSolo29/Fan%20Art/hl-buildings2.jpg]WIP#2[/link] - the rendering of the buildings continue

Great to see the work in progres and almost the same as doing oils or watercolours. With oils you can leave the graphite drawing but with watercolours you can remove it. And in the WIP I can imagine how difficult some parts are.
And maybe I will try digital artwork in the future.

It's been a very long time since my last update, but I've been super busy! I've had a lot of exciting things happen over the past couple of months, including an official gig working for Topps on Star Wars Galaxy 6 Sketch Cards! I am so stoked to be a part of SW on an official level and I just got confirmation to post a preview of some of my cards. So, here we go:

These are gorgeous... can't believe I missed them when you posted them, argh! Really nice work, I love what you've done here, especially with the EU characters! I really like Jaina. But the others are great as well, of course!

Thank you so much, everyone! You're all really great and I appreciate all the kind words!

I'm still dabbing in the world of sketch cards and in-between sets, I've been creating several PSCs(personal sketch cards) and messing around in color in an effort to improve myself in that area. I've noticed that a majority of my sketch cards are black and white and I would love to get my color works up to the same level as my black and white studies. So, without further ado, here are some pieces I managed to crank out in the past few days. More like them will be on the way soon:

They turned out really well! My only quibble with the Luke one is that I think you might've overdone the colours a little... the contrast seems a little too high, if that makes sense? But that's definitely harder to get right with colour than with greyscale. And Han looks a little stretched, but immediately recognisable. I really like the colours in that one. Overall they turned out great! Keep it up!